NASA says asteroid will come by very close....
get some booze and hunker down

NASA announced today that an asteroid 150-feet in diameter will pass close, but safely, by the Earth on Feb. 15.

"Since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s, astronomers have never seen an object so big come so close to our planet," NASA said.

The small near-Earth asteroid – 2012 DA14 – will pass so close that it will pass inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communications satellites.

"NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office can accurately predict the asteroid's path with the observations obtained, and it is therefore known that there is no chance that the asteroid might be on a collision course with Earth," the agency said in a press release.

"Nevertheless," it wrote, "the flyby will provide a unique opportunity for researchers to study a near-Earth object up close."

Yeah, real close – check out the graphics above to see just how close.

The agency will hold a teleconference on Thursday to talk more about the asteroid's flyby.

T

by Anonymous

reply 107

02/15/2013

This really freaks me out, I don't believe it!

by Anonymous

reply 1

02/05/2013

Well, even if this one were to pass close enough to hit us, it's not very big.

by Anonymous

reply 2

02/05/2013

What does Morgan Freeman have to say about it?

by Anonymous

reply 3

02/05/2013

Link!?

by Anonymous

reply 4

02/05/2013

I'm praying it will knock out R2 and prevent him from being an omnipresent pain in the ass of stellar proportions.

by Anonymous

reply 5

02/05/2013

How can we check out any graphics when OP refuses to post a link.

POST THE LINK BITCH!

by Anonymous

reply 6

02/05/2013

Of course the OP should have included the link. But I just pasted the article's first sentence into Google, and the link came right up.

Try it.

by Anonymous

reply 7

02/05/2013

[quote]it will pass inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communications satellites.

Now, thats a little scary. Scientists have been warning for a while about how crowded the real estate in orbit has become. If something was to strike a satellite and cause it to break apart, the debris could collide with other satellites and cause a chain reaction. We could in a very short amount of time lose a huge chunk of the satellites we depend upon everyday.

by Anonymous

reply 8

02/05/2013

Sharing my find...

by Anonymous

reply 9

02/05/2013

The Inquisitor = National Enquirer

by Anonymous

reply 11

02/05/2013

The Inquisitor = National Enquirer in 1480

by Anonymous

reply 12

02/05/2013

Sorry guys.

R10 I was joking hon.

by Anonymous

reply 13

02/05/2013

Shut up r10. Seriously.

by Anonymous

reply 14

02/05/2013

We're all going to die!

by Anonymous

reply 15

02/05/2013

Here's The asteroid video

by Anonymous

reply 16

02/05/2013

I read Yahoo's front page this morning first thing when I woke up. This was right above a headline that said something about an ad attack on Mitch McConnell. I managed to read that an asteroid had attacked him. Sadly, I snapped alert and knew this couldn't be true.

by Anonymous

reply 17

02/05/2013

I know at least a dozen Lockheed engineers who want some satellites taken out so they will keep their jobs to build replacements.

by Anonymous

reply 18

02/05/2013

Can't trust the scientists predictions after watching Melancholia.

by Anonymous

reply 19

02/05/2013

Why would it not get sucked into the Earth's gravitational pull?

by Anonymous

reply 20

02/05/2013

Same reason the Moon doesn't. It's too far away to have much effect. That's why we park satellites out there.

by Anonymous

reply 21

02/05/2013

It will, R20. The Earth's gravitational effects are factored into the computed trajectory.

by Anonymous

reply 22

02/05/2013

But it is much bigger than the satellites...

by Anonymous

reply 23

02/05/2013

Gravity, for something that's moving through the solar system at high speed isn't like a vacuum cleaner, pulling everything near it in. The Earth will cause its trajectory to curve a little, but in whatever direction it's moving, the inertia acting to keep it moving in that direction is stronger than the pull of Earth's gravity.

by Anonymous

reply 24

02/05/2013

Of course, a satellite could hit it and knock the asteroid enough so it diverts it into a collision course. If so, I hope it hits Topeka.

by Anonymous

reply 25

02/05/2013

Hold me David; I'm scared.

by Anonymous

reply 26

02/05/2013

Thanks for responding, VOTN.

by Anonymous

reply 27

02/05/2013

THat's a huge asteroid whose impact would be catastrophic.

by Anonymous

reply 28

02/05/2013

[quote]THat's a huge asteroid whose impact would be catastrophic.

No, it really isn't.

The asteroid which caused the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction was at least six miles in diameter. That's roughly 2500X the size of this one.

by Anonymous

reply 29

02/05/2013

Somebody call The Super Friends!

by Anonymous

reply 31

02/05/2013

[quote]The asteroid which caused the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction was at least six miles in diameter. That's roughly 2500X the size of this one.

Any strategy for a similar occurrence?

by Anonymous

reply 32

02/05/2013

That is still way too big.

by Anonymous

reply 33

02/06/2013

I can see that most ya'll don't have a technical degree, like engineering. Want me to explain cosmology to you? And dufus R24, it is not INERTIA, it is MOMENTUM, dingbat.

by Anonymous

reply 34

02/06/2013

Can it be deflected to hit North Korea?

by Anonymous

reply 35

02/06/2013

Maybe THIS is what the Mayans were talking about.

by Anonymous

reply 36

02/06/2013

Yeah, well, we're not Cretaceous-Paleogene, we're much more fragile, R29.

by Anonymous

reply 37

02/06/2013

[quote]And dufus [R24], it is not INERTIA, it is MOMENTUM, dingbat.

You're quite correct. Classical mechanics was never my favorite part of physics.

[quote]Yeah, well, we're not Cretaceous-Paleogene, we're much more fragile, [R29].

Even if that were true, the Earth itself is not.

by Anonymous

reply 38

02/06/2013

When will my gills grow in?

by Anonymous

reply 39

02/06/2013

Perhaps the insufferable thinks-he-knows-it-all VOTN should just stop digging. I know several lawyers and doctors with the same disease.

He should have stopped when he answered the perfectly reasonable question:

"Why would it not get sucked into the Earth's gravitational pull?"

with this bullshit answer:

"Same reason the Moon doesn't. It's too far away to have much effect. That's why we park satellites out there."

Anyone with minimal exposure to physics knows it's the mass and relative speed of the objects that determine if something is captured by gravity. The asteroid will not be pulled into Earth's orbit or pulled into a collision because it's moving too fast relative to the Earth, not because it's too far away.

But the Tunguska event, as I understand it, was from an asteroid about this size. It flattened things for 800 miles.

R40, if this asteroid were to hit a satellite, would it be possible for its course to be "deflected" on towards earth? Or would such a collision not slow it down or veer it off from its trajectory at all?

by Anonymous

reply 42

02/07/2013

[quote]But the Tunguska event, as I understand it, was from an asteroid about this size. It flattened things for 800 miles.

The Tunguska asteroid is thought to have been about twice the size of this one.

by Anonymous

reply 43

02/07/2013

Satellites have very little mass relative to a large chunk of rock, so a collision with the asteroid wouldn't deflect it noticeably. Think about how much your car is deflected when it hits a fly.

by Anonymous

reply 44

02/07/2013

have they yet published a trajectory? All I know is it will pass on Feb 15 between 3PM and 6PM PST.

by Anonymous

reply 45

02/07/2013

Will we be able to see it go by?

by Anonymous

reply 46

02/08/2013

NEO--Near Earth Object

by Anonymous

reply 47

02/08/2013

Isn't 150 feet basically just a small boulder?

by Anonymous

reply 48

02/08/2013

150 feet is the size of half a football field. It's a fairly small size as asteroids go, but at the speed it's traveling at relative to the Earth (8X the speed of a high-powered rifle bullet), there's a lot of energy there if it were to hit.

Use this cool calculator to determine how bad the impact would be it would be if you were standing close by. Then compare it to some larger asteroids that come wandering by occasionally.

by Anonymous

reply 49

02/08/2013

Think of it this way:

You thow a ball really hard and it goes 20 yards and hits the ground. You throw it harder and it goes 40 yards and hits the ground.

Now imagine you are Superman. You throw the same ball from NYC really hard and fast and it lands in Moscow.

Now, you SUPER DUPER throw it so hard and fast that it NEVER lands back on Earth, in fact it goes around the Earth and passes you again and again. Suddenly, you have a satellite.

by Anonymous

reply 50

02/08/2013

[quote]by: Eh eh get it? Spanish inquisition

But nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition...

by Anonymous

reply 51

02/09/2013

They cannot predict that it won't hit Earth.

It might hit a satellite and change course. This is going to be huge...and the scariest event of the last 50,000 years

by Anonymous

reply 52

02/14/2013

VOTN will know. He knows everything.

by Anonymous

reply 53

02/14/2013

I want to see asteroids

by Anonymous

reply 54

02/14/2013

Meteorites hit Russia!!!!!

by Anonymous

reply 55

02/15/2013

Too much of a coincidence.

by Anonymous

reply 56

02/15/2013

Video of Russian meteor!

by Anonymous

reply 57

02/15/2013

So did the asteroid hit? Is that the meteorite that failed after Russia put it in a chokehold

by Anonymous

reply 58

02/15/2013

Different piece of space rock.

by Anonymous

reply 59

02/15/2013

Don't they say this every 10 years?

by Anonymous

reply 60

02/15/2013

Reports of injuries vary from 100 to 200 people. Busted ear drums??

by Anonymous

reply 61

02/15/2013

That hurt R57, scary!

by Anonymous

reply 62

02/15/2013

[quote]They cannot predict that it won't hit Earth.

Of course they can. The people monitoring this are very good at math, and even have computers to help them. They've been monitoring this since Feb last year, and they'd know by now if they weren't forecasting its trajectory correctly.

Someone up thread already explained why it couldn't be knocked off course by hitting a satellite. Basic physics.

Some additional info on DA14 at the link.

by Anonymous

reply 63

02/15/2013

Reports now saying over 400 injured.

by Anonymous

reply 64

02/15/2013

Apparently it exploded and fell down as either several chunks or as "rain"

by Anonymous

reply 65

02/15/2013

This is either Obama or the gays fault.

You happy now?!

by Anonymous

reply 66

02/15/2013

So this wasn't predicted? I guess we can expect that next asteroid to hit us now.

by Anonymous

reply 67

02/15/2013

Here's a view from Gawker. The thing just appears out of the sky, kind of eerie.

by Anonymous

reply 68

02/15/2013

UPDATE: RT is now reporting, citing unconfirmed military sources, that the meteorite was intercepted by Russian air defense forces, who reportedly used a missile to destroy it while it was still 20 km in the air.

Bad-ass Russians

by Anonymous

reply 69

02/15/2013

Can anyone post updates to whether this meteor shower in Russia is the one that NASA predicted?

Thanx

by Anonymous

reply 70

02/15/2013

[quote]So this wasn't predicted? I guess we can expect that next asteroid to hit us now.

Lest I be accused of anything, it was probably too small for them to see it ahead of time.

Hell, I saw the Peekskill meteorite in 1992 at a high school football game, and I wasn't anywhere near New York.

by Anonymous

reply 71

02/15/2013

A high school in Appleminneous Sotaminne broke out into a major brawl. Six 'mos squeed down the hall, prancing and lisping and yelling, don't hurt me, unless it's in a good way.

by Anonymous

reply 72

02/15/2013

500 injured.

So is this meteor connected to the asteroid coming? Weird if it wasn't.

by Anonymous

reply 73

02/15/2013

Everyone ignored me when twice I asked about the asteroids trajectory. After Russia, aren't you all just a little bit curious now about where it will fly over?

by Anonymous

reply 74

02/15/2013

NASA's Russian reality check:

by Anonymous

reply 75

02/15/2013

Lol at Russian's having cams in their cars and still playing Leona Lewis' Bleeding Love on the radio.

by Anonymous

reply 76

02/15/2013

[quote]NASA's Russian reality check:

NASA.... the ones who gave us Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia

"Reality check" as if we are serfs looking up from our potato harvest and staring fearfully in the sky. Many hate scientists for talking down to people.

Their little charts and graphs show a trajectory, but not the part of the earth's face over which that asteroid will pass.

by Anonymous

reply 77

02/15/2013

Seriously, what the fuck is up with all these Russians having dashboard cams in their cars? Is that a ~thing~ there?

by Anonymous

reply 78

02/15/2013

Is it here yet?

by Anonymous

reply 79

02/15/2013

[quote]The people monitoring this are very good at math

You crack me up. These are fucking Americans. They can't make correct change if their lives depend on it.

by Anonymous

reply 80

02/15/2013

Russians probably witness auto accidents once a week.

by Anonymous

reply 81

02/15/2013

R78 I think its used in case you become targeted for insurance fraud. Apparently, the practice of staging an accident and making it seem like it was an innocent party's fault is common there.

by Anonymous

reply 82

02/15/2013

[quote]NASA.... the ones who gave us Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia

The Near Earth Object Program is a whole other thing than manned spaceflight.

There's no great engineering that goes into plotting the motion of stellar bodies, just plain old doo-dah Newtonian mechanics which, as I've already admitted, isn't my strong suit.

by Anonymous

reply 83

02/15/2013

[quote]Their little charts and graphs show a trajectory, but not the part of the earth's face over which that asteroid will pass.

From NASA's website:

Q: What date and what time will the asteroid be closest to Earth?

A: Asteroid 2012 DA14 will be closest to Earth on Feb. 15 at approximately 19:24 UTC (2:24 p.m. EST/11:24 a.m. PST). This time may change by a minute or two as the asteroid is tracked on its approach and predictions are refined.

At the time of closest approach, the asteroid will be over the eastern Indian Ocean, off Sumatra -- approx. latitude: -6 deg South. / longitude: 97.5 deg East.

by Anonymous

reply 84

02/15/2013

It's not just Americans monitoring these objects, R80. Monitoring space is an international business, which includes some very, very bright people from all around the world.

Also, I'm pretty sure that the Americans involved in international space projects and monitoring are not the same Americans who have trouble making change.

by Anonymous

reply 85

02/15/2013

R80 when did your nation put a man on the moon? Or a rover on Mars?

by Anonymous

reply 86

02/15/2013

R82 - thank you very much! That makes a lot of sense.

by Anonymous

reply 87

02/15/2013

Russians tend to be violent and a car accident generally leads to a full out knock down fight. Judges won't convict on a he said/she said basis so the cameras come in handy for being able to approve assault.

by Anonymous

reply 88

02/15/2013

It's really astounding how many people out there(not just on this thread) don't even have a basic grasp of science.

by Anonymous

reply 89

02/15/2013

We could be in the early stages of an entire asteroid shower for all NASA knows.

by Anonymous

reply 90

02/15/2013

I"M SO SCQRED!!!

by Anonymous

reply 91

02/15/2013

Whimsical thought: what if they Mayan's were off by a month and a half and the size of the asteroid? After all, they were uneducated (by modern standards) and had no modern tools...

by Anonymous

reply 92

02/15/2013

They could have been off by a few tenths, which pushed up the zero hour by seven weeks.

by Anonymous

reply 93

02/15/2013

Live stream of asteroid pass

by Anonymous

reply 94

02/15/2013

Thanks, R94. The live stream is interesting - you can really see the motion relative to the distant stars.

by Anonymous

reply 95

02/15/2013

Looks a little wobbly to me.

by Anonymous

reply 96

02/15/2013

Why didn't we plan to destroy it now when it's so close so people don't have to worry in the future?

by Anonymous

reply 97

02/15/2013

How long has that thing been flying through space? Why doesn't it slow down?

by Anonymous

reply 98

02/15/2013

[quote]How long has that thing been flying through space?

We probably will never know.

[quote] Why doesn't it slow down?

See Newton's first law of motion

by Anonymous

reply 99

02/15/2013

Don't be ridiculous R80 by making blanket statements. I live near NASA and most of my neighbors are rocket scientists or engineers. All are American born and bred.

by Anonymous

reply 100

02/15/2013

That doesn't mean they are intelligent. I had relatives work for NASA whom I wouldn't trust to take out the garbage.

by Anonymous

reply 101

02/15/2013

Well, R101, my neighbors are pretty smart and get their garbage out just fine. I've also enjoyed learning more from them about space operations and exactly how the space station and shuttle are operated.

by Anonymous

reply 102

02/15/2013

And it's gone.

by Anonymous

reply 103

02/15/2013

Apparently it completely missed Earth

The Russian meteorite was the real surprise. Good on them for catching it so quickly and reacting accordingly. That type of space-rock-to-earth event is supposed to be really rare!

by Anonymous

reply 104

02/15/2013

R19,I'm with you...

by Anonymous

reply 105

02/15/2013

This must've been a really scary few seconds for people who knew about the asteroid and then saw some huge light flying towards Earth.

by Anonymous

reply 106

02/15/2013

Why is taking so long for someone to blame the meteor in Russia on Iran?

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